The late 2025 TV schedule has been short on new comedies, but NBC added a jolt of energy to its Friday night comedy lineup with Stumble, a new mockumentary about the world of junior college cheerleading. The projects hails from sibling duo Liz and Jeff Astrof, who came to primetime this fall with plenty of successful comedies to their names. They spoke with CinemaBlend about bringing a mockumentary about cheer to the small screen as well as the atmosphere on set that's an improvement on what they've experienced in the past.
Stumble stars Claws vet Jenn Lyons as Courteney Potter, a successful cheer coach who's ousted from the team she put together after being caught on camera making some "best booty" comments to her performers. She relocates to Headltston State Junior College to start over, leaving her former assistant Tammy Istiny (Kristin Chenowith) to step up for her old team, with the support of her husband Boone (SNL vet Taran Killam). (The premiere is available streaming now with a Peacock subscription.)
Courteney's new team at Headltston includes a narcoleptic flipper, an egotistical former football player, an ankle monitor-wearing recruit, a young woman with a backstory so sad that Stumble makes it pretty hilarious, and one of her old cheerleaders (Young Rock's Ryan Pinkston) who agrees to leave his professional life behind and become a cheerleader again, to name just a handful.
I spoke with the Astrof siblings about their new show, and in addition to assuring me that they don't expect anybody to be able to pronounce "Headltston" correctly, Liz – who comes to the show with a long list of credits to her name including The King of Queens, Last Man Standing, 2 Broke Girls, and Shining Vale – shared:
Everyone on the crew and in the cast are so nice. We've both worked on very toxic sets, and our entire mission is to have always a nice, collaborative set, and that is happening.
While neither Astrof sibling went into detail about sets that were less than pleasant over the long years of their careers, they both only had good things to say about bringing the world of cheer to the small screen. They especially praised the crop of newcomers playing Courteney's team. Jeff Astrof, who worked on shows including The New Adventures of Old Christine, mockumentary Trial & Error, and Shining Vale alongside his sister, said:
It's great. Everybody loves being there. It's nice, and it comes through. I always think that if your set is happy, it comes through on the TV... I was just there this past week and I was like, 'Guys, this is the last week that you're together that people aren't going to see you. This is the last time that you could be famous, or you'll be very disappointed... When you start a writers' room before you get notes, hope springs eternal. And I was like, 'This is it. You guys are babies now, and get ready for this ride.' And I had Taran [Killam] and Ryan [Pinkston], who'd done pilots before, talk to them about what's that like, and what can you expect.
It's never easy to predict nowadays which shows will be massive breakouts, but between a fun pilot introducing the premise and being paired with Reba McEntire's Happy's Place on Friday nights, Stumble may have put together a cast with primetime staying power. According to Jeff Astrof, it was "really sweet" to see the actors together because they're "like best friends," so "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" and "already just clinging together."
NBC is also a reliable home for mockumentaries, ranging from classics like The Office and Parks & Recreation to current series like St. Denis Medical, with a star of the medical sitcom sharing her thoughts on why people still love the mockumentary format so much. The Taylor Swift-approved The Paper is also coming to the network after streaming on Peacock. But why the world of cheer? On the subject of the Stumble cast, Liz Astrof said:
In cheer they have these kids who all have each other's backs. They're all from different backgrounds, and they all just love each other so much. They cheer each other on. And that's also what we loved about that show, the love between all these people from different walks of life. The kids are exactly the same. They got to karaoke together, like all of them. They go out on Saturday nights together in the city. It's just amazing.
Of course, this all leads to the big question: why is the mockumentary format the right fit for a sitcom about the world of cheer? Jeff Astrof acknowledged that it's a "good question" for a show that'll be unlike any other sitcom in primetime, despite other mockumentary options. On top of bringing in real-life cheer coach Monica Aldama from Cheer (available streaming now with a Netflix subscription) as an executive producer, Astrof shared:
The premise of the question, I think, is that like this is a style that we chose, versus like we want to do a documentary style of we love the world of cheer, and we love Monica , and we love the high stakes world of junior college cheer. So it's got to be a mockumentary… There's a very big learning curve with how you film this and the storytelling, and there's so many visual jokes that you get, so many added free jokes you get with this style. But we never want to do people like, 'Oh, it's like The Office. It's like that.' It's really not.
While The Office is likely that show that many people think of when it comes to the format, Liz Astrof concurred with her brother is Stumble is "really nothing like that." Jeff went on to explain how the cheer comedy is making the most of the style:
It's very much a part of this show, and we're also very conscious of it. The characters are very conscious, like when they talk to the camera, or they address it, and Courteney's like, 'I know y'all will cut that out.' We have scenes where she asked for footage coming up.
Only one episode has aired so far, but I can vouch that the use of the camera for the mockumentary style is what got a laugh out of me within the first minute of the pilot. If you missed the first episode, take a look at the trailer for a taste of what Stumble will deliver:
Tune in to NBC on Fridays at 8:30 p.m. ET for new episodes of Stumble, following the latest episodes of Happy's Place Season 2. You can also see any that you may have missed streaming with a Peacock subscription. Stumble is one of only two completely original new sitcoms to come to network TV this fall, replacing Lopez vs. Lopez in the 8:30 p.m. ET time slot after the George Lopez-led comedy ended on NBC in the spring.
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